"Prayer begins with a return to the heart, finding one's deepest center, awakening the profound depths of our being in the presence of God who is the source of our being and of our life." Thomas Merton

2

"At every moment everything is coming forth from the ever-active creative love of God."

3

"God made man to be his intimate friend; that is the message woven through the whole of Scripture. ALL are called to the intimacy of contemplative union with God."

4

"The best way to pray is: stop. Let prayer pray within you, whether you know it or not. This means a deep awareness of your true inner identity." Thomas Merton

5

"What truly matters is not how to get the most out of life, but how to recollect yourself so that you can fully give yourself." Thomas Merton

6

"You are prayer. You are a special and sacred word of God made flesh. To pronounce your own unique word is to pray the most beautiful – if not the holiest – of prayers." Ed Hays, contemporary American priest, mystical theologian, 'The Man Who Was the Lord's Prayer'

7

"God speaks not just in the books of the divinely inspired Scriptures, but in the whole of creation and in the depths of one's own being."

8

"A Protestant minister wrote recently: 'I look at the example of Jesus and I realize that's my possibility….We are created in the image and likeness of God.'"

9

"All that is, is good; indeed, all that is, is God."

10

"We express an idea that is in God, that always has been and always will be and that is not distinct from his very essence."

11

"The greatest thing about us is our freedom, or power to choose, to love."

12

"All is sacramental of the Presence of Creative Love."

13

"When we go to the center, we leave behind time and place and separateness. We come to our Source and are in the Being from which we ever flow and in which we ever stand and apart from which we are not."

14

"Our true self is a participation of the Divine Being. It is an image of God….It is a person of immense beauty, held in tenderest and unlimited love."

15

"He is to be found in the depths of our being, at the center, at the ground of our being, perceived by the searching light of faith or the knowing embrace of love….He is within. And there we are so one with Him that we are communion, union, prayer."

16

"At any moment we need or desire, we can very simply enter into ourselves and find there a place of deep peace and joy, a place where dwells the Source of all good, all life, all strength; an ever-faithful Love that totally affirms us with the gift of being and life, and the promise of eternal life. Let us open this reality to as many as we can."

17

"The One who speaks to us is not far away – by no means. He is more present to us than we are to ourselves."

18

"We need but be silent and be who we are, and let Prayer, the Spirit of All Prayer, pray within us."

19

"The Lord…speaks to us in everyone and in everything, in our very selves, in all our movements, energies, and activities, in our breathing, thinking, and feeling. He is the source of all energy, life and activity, and He is present in them as their source."

20

"Father Dominique-Georges Pire, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, wrote: 'To be a peacemaker – that is to say, a man of peace – one must first be at peace with oneself. One must first achieve inner peace. This involves getting to know oneself….Only then can a peaceful being approach the immense task of creating harmony between groups and between individuals'."

21

"At the center, at the Source of our being, we find all others – for our Source is also their Source. We find that all others are one with us in coming forth from creative love."

22

"To learn how to pray is to learn how to pronounce your own sacred word – go speak yourself! To learn to pray is not to learn some method. It is to know who you are and to be who you are supposed to be!" Ed Hays, contemporary American priest, mystical theologian, 'The Man Who Was the Lord's Prayer'

23

"Where are you, Lord, where are you? And where, Lord, are you not? This much at least I know, and that most certainly, that you, in whom we move and have our being, are in a manner present here with me….I know in truth, I am aware most healthfully, that you are with me. I know, I feel, I worship, and I render thanks." William of St. Thierry, 'Meditations'